Friday, 28 October 2016

Blogeditorial decision

1. Introduction

Sometimes the best way to play a game is to stand still and not budge an inch.

This can be because of one of 2 reasons.

The
first is because one doesn’t know what to do and one feels that
anything one does may be compromising in the present and in the future
so one just stands as still and quiet as one possibly can and crosses
one’s fingers very hard, prays desperately even if one is an atheist
begging for things to better than the worst even if just slightly.

As an example, that’s what’s currently going on with the pro-McCann supporters at the moment. Their silence is very telling.

With
the public announcement by South Yorkshire police that Ben Needham has
died in an accident, they haven’t come out as expected in support of
Kerry Needham.

Before we are accused of implying evil things
about Kerry Needham, we are not. We are just saying that it’s highly convenient
for the pro-McCann supporters to be proven that Ben Needham, the other high profile case of a missing British toddler, wandered momentarily away from his family and suffered an unfortunate fatal accident
and that was what South Yorkshire police seemed to have implied.

Because
of that, one would expect for the pro-McCanns to have closed ranks
around Kerry and showed their utmost sympathy for her. Instead they have
only offered silence.

The other reason for staying motionless and silent in a game is by option.

When one doesn’t want one’s opponent to know what one knows nor what assessments one has made of the opponent’s moves.

If
the opponent side is made up of more than one player, as we think happens in this sick game the Maddie case has become, then the choice to stay
still is aimed to step aside and watch how others are playing.

That’s what the blog has decided to do but we will get to that later on in the post.

First, we have to make 2 corrections and 1 clarification from last week’s post “The road of no return and apologies”.

None of them change any of the conclusions we came to last week, as the reader will see, but we do like to be as precise as we can.

2. Correction #1 – Toy car

The
first correction we have to make is about the toy car. We showed the
picture of a toy car and said it was one found by South Yorkshire
police.

We must reprimand ourselves for not reading the caption
properly: “Pictured: A toy car SIMILAR to the one belonging to Ben when
he vanished that was discovered at the dig site in Greece. His
grandmother, Christine, confirmed she recognised it as Ben's” (our caps)

It does say very clearly “similar”.

We even explained why it seemed to be in such a pristine condition.

We
explained how that didn’t strike it as odd to us, because, as we said,
the climate and the dry ground characteristics of Kos seemed to us as it
would preserve a toy for 25 years.

We did find it strange for
the police to have it cleaned it and polished it up but we supposed it
was done after the required soil samples were taken from it and for
reasons to have it presented to the media.

In a Mirror article, Christine Needham, the grandmother, seems to concur with us: “And
of the car, she added: “I expected it to have no paint on but I was 90%
sure it was Ben’s” and “obviously it had not rusted because it had been
hidden in dust and not in the wet.”

We only don’t concur that it was hidden under dust, we are certain it was hidden under ground, buried.

But for now we want to recognise we were wrong.

The
picture we showed last week was not of the item “found on Saturday,
which I have shown personally to some of Ben’s family, was found in one
of the targeted areas at the second site, very close to a dated item
from 1991”, but a similar one.

How similar we don’t know, we will wait to see the real object to find out.

By
the way, we still have to know what item was found near the toy cars
that was dated from 1991. We are curious to know what it may be.

However, the fact that we were wrong, nothing alters what we said last week, that the toy car had to have been buried.

Saturday was at the end of the week South Yorkshire police spent searching second site.

Even
if the toy that was found and that we haven’t seen is not in as in
impeccable condition or as colourful as the similar one shown by the
media, a toy car the size of a matchbox one would unquestionably have
been spotted very quickly, and not have taken days, by the minute search
if it had been above ground.

We maintain that the toy car, the original which we haven’t been shown, was buried.

And the fact that it was buried, as we said last week, rules out the possibility for Ben to have dropped it accidentally.

3. Geographical information

One
thing we have noted is that unlike we had with the 2014 Praia da Luz
Scotland Yard circus we don’t see in the media any aerial shots, or maps
of the locations/areas where the sites in Kos were.

In fact, all
we get to see is the farmhouse (which apparently is not the farmhouse
but the outhouse of the farmhouse located across the street) and images
of the ongoing works.

Isn’t that by itself really very strange?

With
Luz, we got immediate knowledge where Scotland Yard were on their
knees but with South Yorkshire police we don’t remember seeing any map
pointing out where their activity took place on the island.

Everyone minimally
interested in the Maddie case knows where Apartment 5A is, as it has
been pointed out where it exactly is in Luz many times, but if we ask the
reader to tell us where the farmhouse is on Google Maps, we doubt many
will know. We didn’t and struggled to find it.

We struggled to
find out where the farmhouse was as well as other locations related to
the case. Even now we are not certain if we are right about the second
site location.

About the first one we are because the building,
like Apartment 5A, is now familiar to all, because it has been shown
with frequency and the search site was very near it.

One could
think that it’s like the media is making an effort with Kos to create
the opposite effect they have done with Praia da Luz.

In the
small town in the Algarve, all was done to make it seem bigger than it
really is while in Kos it seems we’re being convinced things are very
near each other when they’re not.

Why that may have been done is a question we leave for each one of our readers to wonder about.

Let’s then do what the media should have done and show readers the relative distances between places of interest in this case.

First let’s understand the size of the island. We think people perceive it to be much smaller than it really is:

It’s approximately the same size as the Isle of Wight and Madeira to use well-known references, although much less wider. We would say Kos is very similar in size to the Pico island of Azores:

Where the farmhouse is:

It’s on the East side of the island, relatively isolated, in an area with a number of olive groves:

(2) the Kerry Needham’s apartment (we have no precise location, just that it was in the Kako Pinari area);

(3) the Palm Beach Hotel where Kerry worked.

4. Correction #2 – Distances

The second correction we have to make are the distances we implied were involved in last week’s post.

When
we wrote it we were unaware of something very important:
we didn’t know the location of the second searched site.

In our blissful ignorance, we thought the toy car had been found near the farmhouse, just down the road.

It isn’t and it is quite far from it. It’s about 650 metres (yellow markers for each 100 metres) from the farmhouse.

That’s very far, as in terms of a distance walked by a 21 month old little boy.

It’s
impossible for the toy to have been dropped by Ben at that second search
site, someone took it and in our opinion buried it there.

Again,
Christine Needham agrees with us: “When I saw it I felt disbelief. It
must have been dumped at that site by Dino. It didn’t walk there”.

Again
we disagree with her in terms of it having been dumped, as we said, we are
certain it was buried. About the toy having been dumped by Dino, or Konstantino Barkas, we neither
agree nor disagree with her on content, because we are still waiting for
South Yorkshire police to clarify that, but have to say we disagree with her for having
said it because in doing so she denied Mr Barkas’ right to the presumption of innocence.

In her defense, the South Yorkshire police could
have already told her by then, privately, that they thought it was Mr Barkas who did it but even if that was the case (something we are still waiting to know) it would be the kind of information
not to be used publicly until South Yorkshire police did it first, and hasn’t, yet.

The distance between the
farmhouse and the second site makes it seem highly unlikely, not so say
impossible, as Christine Needham does seem to agree with us, to be the location
where the apparently alleged hit-and-run-by-bulldozer accident would
have happened.

Besides, South Yorkshire police have made it clear they think an accident happened near the farmhouse and not 650 metres away from it: “my team and
I know that machinery, including a large digger, was used to clear an
area of land on 24 July 1991, behind the farmhouse that was being
renovated by the Needham’s. It is my professional belief that Ben
Needham died as a result of an accident near to the farmhouse in Iraklis
where he was last seen playing”.

If
one is to read the South Yorkshire police statement attentively, it even
implies they think accident happened inside the farmhouse grounds:
“that machinery, including a large digger, was used to clear an area of
land on 24 July 1991, behind the farmhouse that was being renovated by
the Needham’s”.

But, until South Yorkshire police tells us their version, all is speculation, except that the fatal accident they speak of happened near search site #1 and not near search site #2, approximately 650 metres from the farmhouse.

5. Clarification – Exempting v Accusing

The
clarification we would like to make is about how we feel we have
misled our readers when we used the expression of “prospective patsy”
when referring to Konstantinos Barkas.

By using it, it may have seemed that we were clearing Mr Barkas from all and any wrongdoing in the case.

We weren’t.

Before
letting the dogs loose on us or exhaling in relief, depending on which
side of this particular fence the reader is, are we saying now that we
think he has done something wrong?

No, we are not. Let that be very clear.

We are neither exempting him nor accusing him of anything.

And
we’re doing the exactly the same with the Needham family. We haven’t said
that they should be cleared nor haven’t accused them of anything.

It is up to the proper authorities to determine (and tell us) what wrongdoing happened, who did it, when, how and why they did it.

We
remind you that, like we said last week, South Yorkshire police has not
accused Mr Barkas or anyone of anything.

They have strongly implied that the accident happened with him but that last step has still to be walked and
until it has, it hasn’t.

What we did when we qualified Mr Barkas as a “prospective patsy” was to acknowledge that he was indeed being used by the media as a “patsy”.

The media was the one
saying that the police thought that Mr Barkas was the one who
accidentally killed Ben.

Now, we did say last week that the
hit-and-run-by bulldozer scenario wasn’t only highly unlikely as it
seemed absolutely ridiculous to us.

A week has passed.

Now we have
gathered more information since then and our opinion has NOT budged an
inch.

We continue to find it ludicrous for Ben to have died as a result of a
hit-and-run-by bulldozer accident near the farmhouse followed by an
immediate removal of the body and a fantastic forensic cleaning of the
site.

As
we said last week, “and if they [South Yorkshire police] are determined
to follow truth as much as we are then all will make sense, all will be
clear, all pieces will fit and all questions will have a quick,
transparent and logical answers with no ermms... whatsoever. Truth is
unique, raises no questions, leaves no doubts.”

So, however
improbable it may seem now, and it really does, if South Yorkshire
police can give us all a reasonable beyond doubt version of events that
prove Mr Barkas killed Ben accidentally, let us reassure readers that we will be the first ones to
recognise that.

But it has to be directly from South Yorkshire police’s mouth. Not the media’s.

In a similar statement to the one they gave on Monday 17 in Kos.

And it has to be convincing because truth is always convincing.

Until then, we will keep to our opinion that Mr Barkas did not kill Ben accidentally.

And if it happens that South Yorkshire police’s official version ends up implicating Mr Barkas in a not very convincing manner, then at that moment he will stop being media's prospective patsy to become an effective official one and, if that time comes, then one will have to wonder and ask why.

Here we must highlight something. The fact that we have excluded, until proven wrong, Mr Barkas from killing accidentally Ben, doesn’t mean in any way, form or shape that we are including someone else. We have excluded Mr Barkas per proposed scenario and that’s it. We didn’t follow it with then it was X, Y or Z.

If people read it that way it’s their problem, not ours. If they have come to any such conclusions, it’s theirs, not ours.

We simply don’t think it was Mr Barkas and are waiting for South Yorkshire police to tell us who they think it was.

It’s a fact that investigators in an investigation should always use the exact
opposite of presumption of innocence. To the investigators everyone should be
considered potentially guilty until the facts prove them innocent and then, and only then, can be considered of no interest to the investigation.

Only the investigators and only during the investigation should people be considered potentially guilty and no one else. An investigation ends with conclusions and that’s what we are waiting for from the South Yorkshire police about Ben Needham’s disappearance.

It must be said that Mr Barkas does not appear out of the blue in this process.

From
the information available (we repeat that we have no official
information yet) his name appears as an integral part of the process, we
believe as a witness.

It seems he saw a white Suzuki with 2 men and a woman inside, as Kerry refers on page 140 of her book: “an English speaking officer told us Barkas had reported seeing a white car parked along the lane on the day B had disappeared. He couldn't identify the passengers, but could tell there were 2 men in the front and a woman in the back.'They took your baby'”

From the wording above it seems like the supposition of the baby having been taken by the people in this car is more an assessment made by the Greek policeman from whatever Mr Barka said to the police than him having said that himself.

As far as we have been able to ascertain, at the time he was working about 100 metres North of the farmhouse, we believe would be this house:

This property, as far as we could find out, was neither searched in 2012 nor now in 2016.

About the libel suit the Barkas family has
said it will file against Kerry Needham, all we have to say about it is
that we agree an offended party has the right to defend itself legally.

However,
we feel we should remind readers that filing libel suits against others
does not necessarily mean that one is innocent. We do keep reminding the McCanns of that, don’t we? Presumption of innocence is not the same as a declaration of clearance as the McCanns are repeatedly reminded.

Again, let us be clear that we are not making any sort of bad comparison between the Barkas family and the McCanns. Libel laws exist and are there to be used by the McCanns, the Barkas and by anyone else who feels they should. Each case is a case and should be analysed as such.

That said, it must be noted that to say that Mr Barkas is
innocent based on the fact he may be suing Kerry Needham is as
wrong as her saying he “could burn in hell” before knowing what the official South Yorkshire police official position is.

Until we’re shown otherwise, Mr Barkas benefits from the presumption
of innocence. For that reason, and that reason alone, we think it was premature for Christine Needham to have said it was Mr Barkas who dumped the toy car in the second search site location and for Kerry Needham to have said he could burn in hell, however emotional they felt when they said it.

One thing is certain, and that is that both sides cannot be right at the same time on this and it’s up to South Yorkshire police to tell us who is.

Another reason, among many, for the South Yorkshire police to come quickly and clarify what they officially think happened. What they said on Monday 17th was not enough.

We, for one, are waiting eagerly.

We really do want to find out to what South Yorkshire police has committed itself to.

6. Blogeditorial decision

For the last month, we confess we have been baffled trying to figure why what was happening was.

To be honest, nothing seemed to make sense but then the pieces have slowly began to fall into place.

We have said before that we consider ourselves as armchair journalists and feel quite proud of it.

And we do like to think ourselves as responsible armchair journalists but that is something only those who read us can say.

We do have one huge advantage over the paid journalists and that is we are not pressured by sales. That allows us to have no loyalty to anyone or anything but the truth.

In that spirit, we have up to now been informing readers about how we saw the game was being played.

For the last 8 years, by
revealing the different moves as we saw them being played, we hope that we have put
on a pressure which we would like to think has avoided
having those deciding to pursue other avenues than truth.

All we did, do and will do is because we are moved by the thought that it was the best way we could, as
anonymous citizens, to help the truth about what happened to Maddie to
emerge.

That is the beacon that has guided, guides and will guide us.

But now, on analysing things as they are happening, that beacon is telling us it’s best we shut up. That it’s what is the best the blog can do at this particular stage of the game to help truth emerge.

To be very clear we aren’t responding to scare tactics. Those of us who survived
the Maddie battlegrounds of 2008 and 2009 think we can handle such shameful behaviour.

We are not abandoning case, nor are we backtracking on anything. We are not going away, just stepping aside during this stage of the game.

We
won’t close the blog or delete any posts.

We have just made a blogeditorial decision which is to simply step aside and
let other players play while we watch.

For obvious reasons, we won’t explain what reasons are behind this decision and we hope that our readers trust our judgement.

When we feel we should return, we will. Hopefully soon to comment about the outcome of the Lisbon trial but that doesn’t really count.

Before we break we would like to leave with the following list of facts about Ben Needham’s case:

#1 – A witness, in May, allegedly provided South Yorkshire police with evidence about what may have happened to Ben;

#2
– In September, 4 months later, and we suppose based on whatever the
May witness said, the South Yorkshire police announced that it was going to proceed
with a second diligence in Kos.

We find this fact particularly
disturbing as it was giving, very publicly, one very reasonable
head-start to anyone in Kos wanting to get rid of any evidence they
feared could be compromising.

Plus, by publicly forewarning Kerry
Needham to prepare herself for the worst, that Ben could be dead
they made it pretty clear to those potentially involved in any way with
Ben’s death to doubly certify that no condemning vestiges would ever be
found.

To top it all, after mentioning the possibility of death, South
Yorkshire police doesn’t take any EVRD dogs with them;

#3 – South
Yorkshire police spent the first 2 weeks on Kos on the 1st search site
that was in the farmhouse grounds where Ben, grandfather, grandmother
and uncle had been in the afternoon he disappeared.

Some of the searches
were so close to the building that they even demolished a part of it
because of that.

#4 – On the first week of searches, on the 1st site, South Yorkshire police had made an exact replica of the sandals Ben wore on the day he disappeared.

It seems someone thought that such a pair was necessary to make sure the officers involved in the search, in case they found a pair of toddler sandals while searching for vestiges of a toddler in the farmhouse grounds, wouldn’t ignore them;

#5 – South Yorkshire police
on the 3rd week moved to the second search site, again certainly based on the testimony given by the witness who came forward in May, approximately 650 metres from the
farmhouse.

#6 – On the second search site, on Saturday 15th, just hours from calling off the searches they find a toy car;

#9
– On Monday 17th, South Yorkshire police hold a press conference to say
Ben DIED, and that this certainty was deduced from the finding of this
toy car. The toy car is, apparently, the basis of South Yorkshire
police accidental death thesis.

“After Ben vanished Ed said he trawled the area, scoured the site where Dino had been working and even looked in and around the digger for any sign of Ben.

He said: “I searched all round that digger. I even searched the bucket in case Ben had climbed on to it or done something silly like that.””.

#11 and #12 – On Tuesday 18th and on Friday 21st, Ben’s sister raises doubts about the car being Ben’s and says family still believe Ben alive;

#13
– On Sunday 23rd, Needham’s barrister, Mr Ian Brownhill, issues a
statement saying “Ms Needham and her family are at present in a
period of reflection but will continue to seek the truth surrounding
Ben's disappearance. Those of us assisting the Needham family will
continue to do so fearlessly, the overarching aim always being to
reunite this family and protect the rights of a mother and her child”.

Mr Brownhill worked pro bono for the Needhams in 2015 when the Home
Office then led by current Prime-Minister Theresa May, was pressured,
successfully, for funds to search for Ben;

#14
– On Monday 24, the Twitter account @FindBenNeedham published the
following: “Please join us on 29th October 2016 to celebrate Ben's 27th
birthday by changing your profile picture for the day”.

This blog is about Maddie and it never stopped being so.

Post Scriptum:

Comment we received:

“Unknown has left a new comment on your post "Blogeditorial decision":

“This tiny toy car , slightly battered and scratched after more than 25 years underground and measuring less than 3 inches by 1 inch, is the main and perhaps the only significant item found after a painstaking and laborious search in the area where Bem Neddham was last seen-

It’s a Mercedes toy imported from China.

It was found at the second excavation fly-tipping area, 750 yards from the farmhouse known to be used by Konstantinos Barkas who South Yorkshire police believe killed the toddler in an accident with his JCB digger.

He died last year, his family denied he had any involvement.

The toy was found next to a tin can which could be dated to 1991- It was found on Saturday the 15th, one day before the date was due to end. The car was shown to family members who came to the island the same day.

(DI Cousins) “The family had been shown the item, clearly it was very distressing and emotional for everybody that was present when that was done and it’s fair to say that I want to do some further work on it to ensure that that confidence remains as it is, if not grows.”

The car, made by a Chinese company called Summer, looked like this when first bought. It was part of a series of race cars made in the late 80s, early 90s.

On the day Ben went missing, his grandmother Christine took him to the farmhouse in a pushchair. Ben was knocking 2 toy cars together, the other has not been found.

In September, after Ben’s mum Kerry had been told to prepare for the worst by South Yorkshire police after a witness came forward pinpointing areas where Ben could have been taken, she was angry at the time it had taken for him to reveal information.

(Kerry Needham)“I could have done something with my life, instead of having a life on hold and not being able to do anything or focus on anything and living this nightmare, could have ended 25 years ago”.

Tomorrow the family, some of whom are together over the weekend, will take time out to mark Ben’s 27th birthday. It will be a difficult day.

They travelled thousands of miles looking for him, while all along, according to South Yorkshire police’s conclusion he was never further than 750 yards from the last place he was seen.

Mark Witty, ITV News”

Thank you, Unknown!

Following the publishing of this Post Scriptum, we received the following comment:

“Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Blogeditorial decision":

The Google car is on the road traveled that day by the Needhams. And this site wasn't in any way a "secret" dumping site of Dino as the press have claimed. You can clearly see how close the rubble is to the road.

Your succinct and forensic overview and analyses will be missed, but I understand you want to step back to see how the game plays out. We are all in your debt for the marvellous work you (ladies) have done. You've shone a very needed light into this murky tale.

For reasons that only assist us and which we will keep to ourselves until we feel we should share them publicly, we have come to the conclusion that the proximate unfolding of the Ben Needham case, whatever it may be, will have a significant if not a direct impact on Maddie's case post Lisbon trial.

To write about any other subject would be to ease off the pressure we wish to put on South Yorkshire police to have them detail exactly what conclusions they came to about Ben after their so adamant press conference in Kos.

If anything, it seems that the Needham family seems to agree with us that the South Yorkshire police position is doubtful as they seem to be contradicting it publicly and even could be taken as being defying it.

To write about Ben any further than we have, would be to go into the reasons we wish to withhold.

Seeing ourselves in a position, by OPTION, of not being able to write about Ben and not wanting to write about anything else until South Yorkshire police clarify their position, we chose to step aside.

This is not to throw in any towel. This is to have and keep the initiative.

What others make of what we have done is something we simply cannot, nor want to, control.

I 've watched that video twice now - it is very thought provoking to watch Ben's uncle under hypnosis. I cannot make up my mind. He comers across as likeable and genuine and yet he refuses to go further at a certain point, when asked to 'float' above the scene. I do sympathise with him - he was so young at the time and has been severely affected by the trauma - whether involved or not.

Actually, further to my last comment.. I did come to one conclusion following my second view of the video: Although his Uncle indicates his satisfaction at what the sessions have helped him conclude - he was not prepared to allow himself to completely satisfy himself, by 'being prepared to 'float' above the scene. It does appear that he still encounters a 'blockage' at certain points. He is so resolute at coming out the trance at a certain point which indicates he cannot give himself up entirely to the process. I am not meaning to insinuate anything by pointing this out - only that I wonder whether he really was 'satisfied' or whether he simply wanted to feel satisfied.. I do empathise with him.

Enjoy your well deserved break. Great to see you'll be leaving the blog open to view. I've noted a few others closing, be that temporarily, for personal reasons, or for outright attention seeking (donations for the G & T club, clearly didn't flood in as expected). There are so many articles, and posts that link to this site, so it's encouraging to know those posts won't be affected, and that people will still be able to access, what is a vault of valuable insights, and information. Take care all of you.

Hi. If it is useful to you here is the street view of the second dig site:https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@36.8796499,27.3130186,3a,75y,179.91h,95.11t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sj8Ju2Ca83DTV3vYzomXZgA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

The Google car is on the road traveled that day by the Needhams. And this site wasn't in any way a "secret" dumping site of Dino as the press have claimed. You can clearly see how close the rubble is to the road.

At the time of the very sad case of James Bulgar in the UK, I can reason to dash into the road to save a child. The little boy, still in droopy nappy, well under two was running FREE RANGE, straight into the road. All ended well & I grabbed him & ran to the other side in some sort of sweeping motion. Many pros & cons ... and considerations, I ran with him into a shop & asked them to phone the police, also taking with me a witness etc. Cutting to the chase, this child had left the shop his mother was in and had got out of a shopping mall, across an open square, down a road & then straight out into traffic. He had travelled about 1\4 of mile. Totally unknown to the mother. When the police directed her to the shop where I was with him - i.e. reported before he was even missed! I'll leave the rest to your imagination. But he certainly had travelled. (If ever this happened again, I would demand the police to attend!)

After another 'sighting 'last week, the McCanns face a future of accusation and uncertainty, just like Ben Needham's family

Rudimentary common sense, you might have thought, would have told us it was not Madeleine McCann. Smudgy tourist snaps notwithstanding, it is inconceivable that a blonde, four-year-old, English-speaking chatterbox is living openly in a far-flung corner of Morocco, hefted around by a brown woman who has enough trouble feeding four children of her own. Nevertheless, it took a posse of bounty-hunting journalists to swoop upon an alarmed family before reason kicked in to the most recent of four 'sightings' of Madeleine in Morocco - curiously, always in the grip of a 'swarthy foreigner'.

The McCanns are said to be devastated by dashed hopes; if so, they must get used to it, for there will be more sightings, more dashing and, to add to their misery, more harassment of more innocent families. I know this because, having investigated the disappearance of Ben Needham on Kos in 1991, the unfolding of the McCann case has felt like one long, wretched, groundhog summer.

Ben, recapped in a nutshell: his grandparents, Eddie and Chris Needham, moved from Sheffield to Kos with their teenage son Stephen, daughter Kerry and her boyfriend and their son, Ben. Eddie was rebuilding a local farmer's hillside shack, Kerry worked in a hotel, Chris cared for Ben. On impulse, Chris took Ben to have lunch at the shack, joined by Stephen on his scooter. Ben played outside; Chris and Eddie checked on him 'every few minutes'. (Hold that thought.) Even when they noticed him missing, they assumed he had left with Stephen and it was five hours before they discovered otherwise. Nobody, therefore, knows exactly when Ben disappeared; familiar, you will be thinking.

The singular difference between the Needhams and the McCanns is, crudely, class. Eddie has homemade tattoos on his knuckles, Chris was a grandmother at 38, Kerry and her boyfriend - a man known, as they say, to the police - lived in a council block. Perhaps this explains why, throughout their ordeal, nobody from the British consulate in Athens once got off their butt or went to Kos to help or support; surgeon Gerry McCann, by contrast, mobilised the world.

Much else, however, is disturbingly similar. The press interest, for instance - it helped that the missing children were both yummy bundles of photogenic, fair-skinned beauty - was, at least initially, sympathetic. In both cases, early investigation was hampered by scant co-operation between local and British police. (The recalcitrance is not necessarily always foreign: the Sheffield officer on Ben's case told me proudly that he'd never had a passport and didn't want one now; what good, he demanded, could he do in bloody Greece?)

There is consistency, too, in the eagerness of local police to blame the families. As with the mayor in Jaws, serving a district that survives on tourism involves ignoring home-grown sharks; if the family is guilty, at least the sin is not indigenous. Every time leaks spill from Portuguese police, I remember the Kos officers who fancied young Stephen for an imagined murder, but who also saw fit to tell me that Eddie and Chris took a drink too many and that unmarried Kerry was a slut, in a tone that suggested losing a child was too lenient a punishment for her.

Back in Blighty, armchair sleuths were then, as now, having a blast, albeit by parking accusation in the space reserved for whichever bogeyman was in vogue. In 1991, we were not yet in thrall to paedophilia, so favourites were body snatchers: hundreds of people, I was assured (here and in Greece) were taking children to harvest their organs. Ben may return alive, I was told ominously. But with bits missing. Now we're riddled with perverts, so rumours run easier still.

Back then, bad guys were traditionally gypsies, so everybody grabbed the chance to be extra horrid about them; now, it's Muslims.It is unlikely a coincidence that four 'sightings' happen in the nearest Muslim country to Portugal, while the Moroccan woman seen with the might-be Madeleine last week was not wearing religious clothing, nor was her name known, but she was widely described none the less as Muslim.

The biggest problem with amateur detection is the systematic evolution of preferred theories, which, by dint of popularity, come to override plausibility - and none tips the scales of sense more surely than this: crime is always preferred over accident, by all involved. That a child might wander off and come to a lonely end does not suit those who live nearby: whether in Kos or Praia de Luz, they are no happier to admit to risk by drain or quagmire than by the hand of a native nutter.

It does not suit the media: note how quickly an accident leaves front pages; note how long a murder stays. It does not suit the armchair sleuths: how can you enjoy your xenophobic prejudices without central casting's baddies to blame?

Most of all, it does not suit the families. Accident points not only to probable death but to more negligence than they have already admitted to themselves: what if checking on Ben 'every few minutes' wasn't entirely accurate; what if checking on Madeleine 'every half hour' meant listening but never actually seeing her; how far, really, could a 21-month-old propel himself in five hours? Or a three-year-old in two and a half?

I shall not presume to deduce Madeleine's fate; like you, I'm still in the armchair. But with Ben, I'm entitled. I have stood, three times, on the spot where he vanished, a lethal stretch of terrain, strewn with waist-high scrub, crevasses and old wells and I have crossed off every theory.

There wasn't a shred of evidence against the likable Stephen. No, Chris and Ben were not followed; the path was too exposed for cover. No, nobody drove there; a car would have been heard. No, Ben was not smuggled off the island; the first ferry was five hours after he was last seen and a kidnapper would have assumed the alarm was raised.

The only search for Ben was by the family in the dark with, next day, desultory help from local police (familiar, again?). Crucially, they only searched down the hill from the shack, based solely on the family 'knowing' Ben would head down towards home, just as the McCanns 'know' Madeleine wouldn't wander, especially without Cuddle Cat, and just as I 'know' this: that the only conclusion to hold a drop of sane water is that Ben did go up the hill, did fall, died or was concussed and heat and animals did the rest. Faster than you could possibly believe.

As I say, accident is an unpopular conclusion, so much so that no infrared body-tracking device was flown over Ben's bleak hillside and nor was it in Portugal. It might have been useless; it might, at best, have ruled out mishap. Nevertheless, if disproportionate time is always to be invested in theories popular with interested parties, other families will be where the Needhams are and where the McCanns are heading: towards more and madder 'sightings', almost all by tourists who get hyper after a few sherries. Nothing will come of any of them and the crazed limbo of family uncertainty, coupled with spiteful stranger speculation, will drag on for a lifetime.

And all the while, in remote foreign fields, frightened families with good reason to fear their police will be forced to prove their own children's existence. For that, as for much else, many of us have a lot to answer.

We understand that journalists have a job to do, but in our experience of 16 years working along side every British TV, Newspaper and Magazine there is, we do believe we have the right to reply to this article, because it misinforms the public.

Ms. Sarler

Firstly let us say that Ben was abducted he didn't just disappear, and if as you have stated in your column you have investigated Ben's case, you should have known the difference.

Yes! Ben played outside the doorway of the shack as you call it.

As a matter of fact, it was an old farmhouse that needed rebuilding.

There was no door or shutters or even windows.

Therefore, Ben had not been shut out of the house to play on his own.

Ben was in and out collecting water and food every few seconds.

Stephen was already at the farmhouse working with Eddie.

It was only when Eddie told Stephen, there was nothing more they could do that day without building materials, that Stephen left.

Yes!!! Ben was still outside at this time playing in the dirt with his toy cars like any normal little boy.

He did look up to see Stephen leaving and Stephen did tell him to stay there with Granddad.

Please Ms. Sarler, hold on to your own thought!

With hind sight yes Stephen could have picked him up and taken Ben inside, but why would anyone think like that.

If Ben wanted to wonder off on his own he could have done so already!

When Christine realised Ben was quiet (only a few moments after Stephen had gone) not 10 or even 5 minutes for that matter, she did NOT assume straight away that Stephen had taken Ben with him.

It was only after Christine, Eddie and the owner of the farmhouse searched the surrounding areas, shouted his name for half an hour or so that they came to this conclusion.

The time that Ben vanished was just after Stephen had left at around 2.30pm.

Yes they do feel the guilt like any normal person would, but they have nothing to be ashamed of.

They checked on Ben continuously!

How far could a 21 month old go by himself? Not very far considering the ground there is too rough and has remained the same after all those years.

Eddie & Christine did not leave it 5 hours before looking for him as you state in your article.

Ms. Sarler you state you are entitled to make a judgement on Ben's fate.

We are really glad you just stood there, three times.

That is all you have done Ms. Sarler and along with the police slunder does not entitle you to any kind of judgement.

Where on earth did you see the lethal stretch of terrain with waist high scrub and crevasses?

Dear Ms. Sarler, have you confused Kos island with some other place?

Apart from the scenery, the corrupt Kos police, "forgot" to inform you that there have been witnesses statements, there was a white car parked near by, with one woman in the back and two men in the front.

The police themselves, have given us the name of the white car owner.

The owner of the car is a woman who had a close relationship with a certain police officer and was brought in to translate for us, thus controling the investigation itself.

When we ourselves confronted the woman with this fact, she denied her car was roadworthy at the time of Ben's abduction, namely July 24, 1991.

She lied and told us she had returned her car to the government in order to claim a subsidy.

True, but she had applied for it in October and it was approved in November.

Have you seen the documents Ms. Sarler?

Have you seen any witnesses statements at all?

We do not plan to show you any!!!

There has never been an investigation as to her whereabouts that fateful day.

It was all too easy for her to abduct Ben.

This woman knew how the police would react, especially when she told them about Kerry's unmarried mother status.

Another thing Ms. Sarler, how do you know when searches took place to find Ben?

Were you on Kos and somehow we did not see you, or this is what you have been told by the Kos police, the same police who botched and covered up the investigation in order to save their criminal friend and their island?

If Ben had wondered off during the afternoon and fell down he would have been heard crying.

If he had got stuck somewhere he would have been heard and what's more Ben would have heard his Nanny and granddad shouting his name.

A very scared little boy who have hurt himself, the whole village would have heard his screams.

There is an echo right there, Ms. Sarler, or you didn't notice that either?

But... you have investigated and you are entitled to tell the world!!!

Ben did not vanish on his own.

He was ABDUCTED Ms. Sarler.

Last but not least Ms. Slarer, apart from the police slunder to cover their own corruption, no member of the Needham family ever became a criminal suspect. This is not a class matter.

"Apart from the scenery, the corrupt Kos police, "forgot" to inform you that there have been witnesses statements, there was a white car parked near by, with one woman in the back and two men in the front."

Kerry Needham:"Yes! Ben played outside the doorway of the shack as you call it. As a matter of fact, it was an old farmhouse that needed rebuilding.There was no door or shutters or even windows. Therefore, Ben had not been shut out of the house to play on his own."

... No windows , no doors , no possibility a digger would be outside unseen and unheard . No possibility an accident outside , cleaning of the scene and concealment would be possible unseen!

So Barkas does play a vital role in it which has linked him to the case from the beginning .......like Jane Tanner he provides the only possible evidence to suggest that an abduction occurred. Even as far before 2012 dig he was linked to it in that he may have accidentally without knowing have buried him. It seems that pressure to the home office to re open the case only happened after Barkas died. I think when it became obvious that the South Yorkshire police were onto what happened the theory that it was Barkas what done it was diliberately created to fit in with their theory. Similar again to the McCanns case when the dogs provided evidence of a particular theory the Kate attended 6 dead bodies, the rotten meat in the car was introduced. Desperate people in desperate situations become like children and have to try and remove the blame from themselves no matter how ridiculous it sounds. The still looking for a live child put out there by the sister is like the McCanns there to devert the public away from looking at what the evidence tells them.

Finding the car proves that the South Yorkshire police have spoken to someone who was there when the wee boy died. Whoever told them have given them the information to find it and other material which in my opinion contains enough forensic evidence that proves he is dead. Whoever buried the car didn't go to the trouble of taking only a toy car 650 yards away and burying it. Obviously a digger was used to take a load of rubble from inside or outside the house from the area where the accident happened. They didn't specifically go looking for the toy car but when it happened to be among the rubble which contained evidence of an accident It turned out to be is a good marketing ploy ( to borrow a phrase) for the police to link the rubble directly to Ben

And still about the Daily Mail link I just submitted, in the timelines surrounding case it says this: 2004: An anonymous businessman offers a reward of £500,000 for information leading to Ben's safe return.When was this? I don't remember such a reward!

We have received the following comment, which, as said above, we opted not to publish then:

“Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The road of no return and apologies":

I think you will find this very interesting. Check what grandfather says about him having searched the digger.http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ben-needhams-grandfather-reveals-spoke-8860116

Posted by Anonymous to Textusa at 29 Oct 2016, 21:32:00”

We hesitated if we would do a Post Scriptum or include it in the main body of post.

Due to its importance we have decided to include it in the body, and it is now fact #10:

#10 – On that same Monday 17th, the Mirror published the article by Lucy Thornton and Andy Lines “Ben Needham's grandfather reveals he spoke to man suspected of killing the youngster on day he vanished”, in which this is written:

“After Ben vanished Ed said he trawled the area, scoured the site where Dino had been working and even looked in and around the digger for any sign of Ben.

He said: “I searched all round that digger. I even searched the bucket in case Ben had climbed on to it or done something silly like that.””.

Completely off subject : Is it possible that the 'Swinging Theme ' of the Portugal holiday included recreational drug use? A groundbreaking and unique drug policy in Portugal was put in place in 2001, and was legally effective from July 2001. The new law maintained the status of illegality for using or possessing any drug for personal use WITHOUT AUTHORISATION . However, the offence was changed from a criminal one, with prison a possible punishment, to an administrative one IF the amount possessed was no more than a TEN DAY supply. What better place to holiday if you are normally seen as a pillar of society but like to indulge yourself ? Doctors are given an uncomfortable statistic when it comes to drinking and drug taking and there were certainly a lot of doctors on site. I can see in this case a very good need for forensic cleaning of the apartment and subsequent cover up. A pity Eddie and Keela weren't trained to detect drugs too. For me the paedophile connection is a non starter.

Anything is possible but we don't know of any information that would suggest recreational drug use.

No large group of OC guests would go to Portugal just to indulge in recreational drugs, in our opinion. The supply chain would be a challenge in itself. They were hardly likely to take the drugs with them by plane.

Maybe its just me, but cases where the first instance suspects and most statistically likely to be involved then begin to dictate the direction of the investigation and attempt to present a narrative that beggars belief always set my alarm bells ringing. Why are they so out of step with the objective way an investigation pursuits leads and examines possibilities?

Who was the last to see the child? What are the circumstances of them leaving the scene of the last sighting? Did they have opportunity or form for moving the child from their presumed final sighting location? Were there circumstances which promoted suspicion of involvement at the outset? Did any potential suspect behave suspiciously? Did any volunteer anything resembling self-incrimination or the presentation of a scenario which broaches the possibility that tbey may know more than tbey initially offered? Would other members of the principal party/group have vested interest in suppressing truth/avoiding the full weight of justice on behalf of the possible suspect?

To be able to answer all of those with a single scenario, a single individual makes me think that a family-contrived narrative cannot and should not be trusted. I understand the Greek police take the same view, and every play of the game since then has been for politics or diplomacy.

If that's what you're hinting at, I wouldn't expect you to comment on how many parallels there may be between this case and another, nor indeed how much manipulation may have arisen from that most British of sentiments regarding spilt milk.

I see there are 2 comments trying to imply the car found wasn't from Ben's era or wasn't the car described by family

Although Dinky is a make of car, the word dinky is often used to describe miniatures cars in general.

The link I sent made it clear that although some Summers cars ceased production in the 70s, a cheaper version continued to be produced in China into the 1990s: "In the early 90s, the company stopped making original castings or simply disappeared. By the mid to late 90s, Summer casts were reused for making very cheap die-cast. Some of this were sold in big packs for very low prices, they had chromed plastic bases, and were made in China. If it was Summer that kept producing toys or a second company that purchased the casts from them, we will probably never know."

I'm sure the police would establish the provenance of the car before producing the photo and stating its origins.

Det Insp Jon Cousins, who led the investigation, said: “It is my professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result of an accident near to the farmhouse in Iraklis where he was last seen playing.”

Mirror colleagues and I have spent months investigating the mystery and found claims of a Greek “cover-up” as wicked lies, vanishing statements and smears against the family were made.

After the renewed investigation and talking to key figures, we can reveal:

A witness has admitted lying to police in 1991 about having sex with Ben’s mother Kerry on the night Ben went missing when, in fact, she was out searching for her son.

A retired Greek official says a “huge” mistake was made when police waited 24 hours before launching a full search.

And a former police officer admits they were “under pressure to close the case”.

Rumours continue on the island, that Ben was taken by gypsies, or the mafia.

Mystery surrounds what happened to a key account from a witness whose home overlooked the house where Ben vanished.

Kerry believes there has been a cover-up over her son’s death and people wanted her to “go away....and forget about Ben”.

In a bid to smear the Needham name, a man who worked with Kerry at a hotel on Kos falsely claimed to have slept with her, while she was out hunting for Ben. He left Kos shortly after making the allegation.

He turned public opinion against the unmarried British mum and many blamed the family as a result. But Kerry has now been told by South Yorkshire Police officers this witness has finally told the truth.

He confessed it was a lie, but claimed he felt bullied into it. It is understood prosecutors on Kos are looking at this admission.

They should also perhaps look into claims of one former Greek official involved closely with the investigation.

He told us there had been a “huge mistake” in the investigation because of an unofficial policy of waiting 24 hours before launching a full search for a missing person – even though in this case Ben was just 21 months old.

The man was at first reluctant to talk, saying he feared for his life. Eventually he told us: “I arrived at work at 8am the morning after Ben disappeared. For someone to be called lost, 24 hours have to pass.

“That was a huge mistake. They didn’t go to the port when they should have done.”

But he said his main reason for speaking was to reveal the statement of a mysterious witness, a friend of his, was never taken because bosses ignored his report.

“He told me he’d seen a car with number plates from abroad. It had two people in the car and they were not Greek people.

“The witness said the child was playing outside and someone stepped out of the car and took him. My friend does not lie. I went back but once he knew the child was still missing he didn’t want to speak.

“He said ‘Don’t ask me more, I’m scared.’”

He said the witness, like so many others, has since died. He added: “I’m in danger for what I’m saying.

“If the child left Kos, all the police officers sitting on chairs would have a problem.”

He fears police would have been accused of leaving it too late to shut ports and lockdown the airport.

I asked to contact the family of this witness and he agreed, but next day, he said the son did not want to talk to us.

But his sombre mood changed when asked about the British police theory that Ben was killed in an accident.

Slapping his forehead with the palms of his hands, he exclaimed: “It’s crazy, doesn’t make sense”, and wagging a finger he said they wanted “to close the mystery”.

The official said he knew Dino, a construction business owner in Kos.

He was behind the building of many of the island’s hotels and, the Mirror understands, also did domestic building work for various police officers.

Another mystery is what happened to a key witness account from an elderly woman whose home overlooked the farmhouse where Ben vanished.

She said she saw Ben’s uncle Stephen leaving the area alone on his scooter. Minutes later she watched Ben playing behind the building his grandfather was renovating. It is too late for police to take her statement now, as she has died. But others have confirmed to British officers what she saw.

Her evidence would have destroyed false rumours that Ben could have died after falling from the back of Stephen’s scooter. It is not known if a statement was ever taken, or if it vanished.

The horrible rumours speculating the family were involved still thrive in Kos.

We met a retired police officer, one of the first to hunt for the missing toddler, who is still full of poison.

He admitted police were under pressure, but denied there was any intimidation of witnesses like the hotel worker who claimed to have slept with Kerry.

“Nobody bullied anyone into giving a statement,” he said. “We only pushed for the truth. Once the mother said the child was missing, we immediately searched. I took the mother’s statement.

“She didn’t look very sad. She was very calm. The police did go to the port that night but not in uniform. We were under pressure to close the case.

“Everyone wanted to find the child. We did our best.”

But Ben’s grandfather Eddie strongly rejects his claims. “That’s a lie,” he told me. “There were no police there just me and my Stephen. I knew all the police.”

With “pressure” mounting on Greek police to close the case and the“mistake” in waiting more than 24 hours, and so much misinformation, I wonder if suspicions of a cover-up are right.

Conspiracy theories saturate the island – Ben was sold to gypsies, there was an accident and it was covered up, or the mafia took him.

But were locals simply scared the tragedy might affect tourism? Back in 2012, when South Yorkshire police first began digging at the farmhouse, the island’s tourism chief Nikos Sofos said: “A lot of mistakes were made in the investigation.

“To the people here it is improbable that Ben was abducted and somehow spirited off the island.”

The British police began digging again in Kos for the first time since 2012 after information from a new witness, a friend of Dino who believed he may be responsible for the death of the toddler.

Dino died, aged 62 last year after suffering cirrhosis of the liver. His family deny any claim that he was involved.

I understand Dino told Greek police officers Ben could have been abducted. He said he saw a strange white car in the area that day on July 24, 1991.

Currently Ben’s case is “still open” and in the hands of local prosecutors.

Angry Kerry, 43, said: “It infuriates me. It is just one big cover-up.

“When I spoke with the UK police and got a full update…they know what happened. They haven’t done this digging on a whim. It has been just one big smokescreen. They [the people on Kos] wanted us to go away, disappear and forget about Ben. They had an attitude that we were not worth helping.”

'WHITEWASH' ON KOS Ben Needham case ‘has all signs of a cover-up’ with sex slurs used to discredit toddler’s mumCops 'under pressure' to close case on tragic tot missing on Greek island for 25 years, probe foundBY CLARE BALDWIN

31st October 2016, 12:41 am

THE hunt for toddler Ben Needham – who went missing on the Greek island of Kos 25 years ago – has the signs of a cover-up, an investigation found.

Greek police were “under pressure” to end their probe quickly, reports The Mirror, and a witness apparently falsely claimed he had slept with Ben’s mum Kerry in an attempt to smear her.

A key witness account on the holiday island is said to be missing and a Greek official has dismissed the UK police theory that Ben was run over by a digger.

Despite a £1.1million police operation and two extensive digs, a toy car is all that’s been found.

Kerry, 43, said: “It infuriates me. It is just one big cover-up.”

South Yorkshire Police think 21-month-old Ben was crushed accidentally by digger driver Konstantinos “Dino” Barkas, who died last year, and his body hidden.Det Insp Jon Cousins, who led the investigation, said: “It is my professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result of an accident near to the farmhouse in Iraklis where he was last seen playing.”

The inquiry found the man admitted lying to cops in 1991 that he had slept with Ben’s mum Kerry when in fact she was out looking for her lad.

And she fears a cover-up, with people hoping she will “go away”.

A former Greek official close to the case said a policy of waiting 24 hours before a full search for a missing person was a “huge mistake”.

He also claimed that a late friend’s witness statement was not taken.

Another mystery is what happened to the account from an elderly woman whose home overlooked the farmhouse where Ben vanished.

She has since died.

The pensioner said she saw Ben’s uncle Stephen leaving the area alone on his scooter. Minutes later she watched Ben playing behind the building his grandfather was renovating.

Her evidence would have quashed false rumours that Ben could have died after falling from the back of Stephen’s scooter, says the Mirror.

And a retired cop, one of the first to join the hunt, admitted: “We were under pressure to close the case. Everyone wanted to find the child. We did our best.”

Dino’s family denies that he was involved. The case is “still open” and in the hands of local prosecutors.

Det Insp Jon Cousins, who led the investigation, said: “It is my professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result of an accident near to the farmhouse in Iraklis where he was last seen playing.”"

2. "“He told me he’d seen a car with number plates from abroad. It had two people in the car and they were not Greek people.

“The witness said the child was playing outside and someone stepped out of the car and took him. My friend does not lie. I went back but once he knew the child was still missing he didn’t want to speak."

This particular car and mould is numbered S688 and is part of a Mercedes rally toy car collection by Summer from the early / mid 70's . More precisely , 1974.

Pictures are available and I will send them by email if want to them as relevant to post as a post scriptumhttp://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-Lucky-Star-88-Car-Summer-Vintage-/201377258990?nma=true&si=CvmZjARGQ5fWvl506lytBrJ6Ack%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/JR4AAOSweW5Vbm1i/s-l500.jpg

As a curiosity Mercedes returned to rally competitions in late 60 and early 70 which explains why the Mercedes toy cars were popular then .

I doubt this particular model would hold any particular attraction to a child in the late 80's and early 90's when rally cars had changed so much . See pic of mid 80's Mercedes car as a curiosity .

It seems also to be the case that Summer mostly exported and produced to Asian and South American markets and not the US and Europe .

Of course it probably exported some to Europe but unlikely this model would be for sale in 1991 in a busy popular tourism destination as Kos.

It's not impossible but very unlikely .

This car only makes sense and is only relevant in the present context if it is NOT Ben's .

PS by referring dinky and corgi ( both toy car brands ) I was thinking of Freudian slips as I was walking up the road with my corgi dog and my dinky cars.

Thanks for the information about the 1974 date of manufacture of the car. It seems S Yorkshire police will need to explain its provenance and how it came to be sold on Kos.They will also have to explain where Dino ran Ben over as Kerry makes it clear in her book that Dino did not come onto the land at the farmhouse.

"This property, as far as we could find out, was neither searched in 2012 nor now in 2016."

The outside of the property (that hadn't been build in 1991) was scanned with ground penetrating equipment in 2012. See third picture here: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ben-needham-dig-police-find-1393687

What I'm struggling with is the Needhams not showing any urgency to know what really happened to Ben . No one from family is asking for that extra effort from SYP to find the body now that they found his car . I don't know but I think the witness who showed where car was would also tell police where body is.

Can SY police go any further without naming suspects. They have said he is dead they have said he died in an accident close to where he was last seen playing. You can't get much clearer than that. If Scotland Yard made the same statements about the MCCann case it would put an end to all the nonsence we read about the

Agree, a huge digger would be left on site until the job was completed. Dino's digger would take up most of the road, driving along. It would have left a trail of tracks on the road. If those tracks rolled over a small child, the body would be totally crushed. And blood everywhere.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3905944/Maybe-tomorrow-lead-Madeleine-Kate-McCann-says-day-brings-fresh-hope-daughter-joins-forces-Alice-Gross-s-mother-new-charity-appeal.htmlKate can't stop!Jumping on the real tragedy of othersShameless

BUT not a single word about Ben Needham! Wouldn't that be the tragedy they should be jumping all over?

Now that they are, or so it's said, with no money in fund and with very little or no prospect of getting any more, for them it's indifferent, in terms of sucking up money, if Maddie or isn't alive, so it's not a question of them not wanting to be associated with a missing child who turned out to be, unfortunately, deceased.

And the fact that Ben is dead, so say South Yorkshire police, doesn't in any way determine what would be, for the McCanns, Maddie's fate.

This caught my eye and I thought it might interest you. US election fever is pulling loads of stuff out of hats, bags and sewers... magic, mischief or myth?http://truthfeed.com/breaking-bombshell-multiple-reports-tie-clintons-podesta-brothers-to-child-abduction-case/34348/

Why would SYP need so much time to come publicly with something?They said the only item of real interest was the car, so I'm not seeing what can the lab be testing from it that would take it so long.I think that SYP is cooking up results like it happened with the FSS and Maddie.

Help Find Ben Needham3 hrs · Statement from Kerry & The Needham Family.Following the recent conclusions reached in The Search For Ben I would like to once again thank the media and the UK & Greek Police. May I ask you to still keep Ben's case out there and if anyone out there has ANY information on where Ben could be to please get in touch. All information given is in strictest confidence. The Needham family need to find Ben, to bring him home and to lay him to rest. Once again thank-you all for your support xx Please share #helpfindben 💙 #BenNeedham

Ladies are we still watching and waiting.....how long weeks,months,years...is all your good work to be laid down to cobweb overand in time we may all forget. Kerry appears to be back at ground zero...although the implication is it is a body she wishes to bring home....where to now?

and if that is it.....what do we have? A police investigation which claims a death....uncorroberated and unproven. One which the Needhams appear to accept. One which the Greek police appear to say nothing and by implication .....accept. So lets move along nothing more to see here??

Brit cops spent £21k flying to and from Greece in search for missing Ben Needham

Detectives have said tot “most likely” died in building site accident

by Graeme Culliford and Jonathan Corke 20th November 2016, 12:33 am

BRITISH police have made 46 return flights to Kos this year in a bid to solve the mystery of toddler Ben Needham’s disappearance, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.

In less than 12 months, South Yorkshire police made the 2,223 mile journey to the Greek island almost four dozen times.

Last month detectives announced that Ben “most likely” died as a result of a building site accident at a farmhouse close to the village of Iraklis where his family had been staying.

The breakthrough came after a now deceased digger operator Konstantinos Barkas allegedly confessed that he had mistakenly killed the British boy then hidden his body in building waste.

Despite the astonishing number of economy class flights, which cost a total of £21,141.62, detectives were not able to find Ben.

But after digging up more than 800 tonnes of soil they did locate a toy car that his family identified as being in his possession when the 21-month old from Sheffield disappeared in July 1991.

Ben was initially believed to have been kidnapped and there were more than 300 reported sightings of him as his mum Kerry Needham, now 43, repeatedly called for information.

But Detective Inspector Jon Cousins was forced to announce last month: “My team and I know that machinery, including a large digger, was used to clear an area of land on 24 July 1991, behind the farmhouse that was being renovated by the Needhams.

“It is my professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result of an accident near to the farmhouse in Iraklis where he was last seen playing.

“The recovery of this item, and its location, further adds to my belief that material was removed from the farmhouse on or shortly after the day that Ben disappeared.”

Very interesting paragraph: "Last month detectives announced that Ben “most likely” died as a result of a building site accident at a farmhouse close to the village of Iraklis where his family had been staying."

We don't remember SYP having announced "most likely" (what was indeed said is quoted in article) when referring to Ben's death last month, so as it's not a quote one can only deduce that quotation marks are used for emphasis.

So, apparently, the certainty it was digger is no longer a certainty.

That, appears to be one of 2 things:

One, SYP are backtracking and things will return to how they were before they made the statement in which was said in very clear terms there was a "professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result of an accident near to the farmhouse in Iraklis where he was last seen playing".

Two, the blame will shift from digger driver to someone else who happened to be nearby at the time. Who it will be will be anybody's guess. Maybe some sunglass stand just outside the farmhouse, similar to the one Gerry McCann bought his sunglasses from in Luz, that may have fallen on the poor boy, and which now some witness will say after all these years that it was there although no one else noticed it.

In this possibility, as we said, we don't know who will be blamed, only know it has to be someone who was very near to the events in question.

In case of the other possibility, the backtracking, all SYP has to do is to give a reasonable explanation as to why toy car travelled on its own that distance and dug itself up.

Note how the para about the big digger - true, but not at farmhouse site - and para about an accident are not directly linked.Both statements can be true, but SYP have carefully avoided directly claiming it was an accident with the digger.

Thank you for your comment. We have already listed this as #10 on our list. We picked it up from a Mirror article and it seems ITV echoed it. Will bring it over to the blog:

"ITV Report 18 September 2016 at 11:54am

Grandfather of Ben Needham: hard to believe missing toddler died in accident

The grandfather of Ben Needham has told ITV Calendar that he finds it hard to believe Konstantinos Barkas could have killed Ben in an accident with his digger, and not said anything at the time to the family.

Eddie Needham spoke with Calendar Producer Mark Witty, after revelations about Ben's possible fate were revealed in the press, and in an exclusive ITV television interview with Ben's mother Kerry.

Eddie described Barkas as a "gentle giant" and was struggling with the premise that he did not reveal any connection to Ben's death when Barkas himself knew he had terminal cancer. He died 18 months ago without, it's reported, any "deathbed" revelation.

Eddie also checked Barkas's vehicle on the day of Ben's disappearance - it was a tractor with a bucket-style digger on the front and the driver position was high up - giving a clear view ahead while driving.

Eddie said the family was trying to remain strong and face the future as best as they can in the circumstances.Last updated Mon 17 Oct 2016"

Interesting to see how the Mirror and ITV are working hand in hand when it comes to Ben.

It is interesting to note that the story has changed slightly from being adamant in the book and the video that work had stopped for the day all was quiet and Ben was playing happily outside. Now we have a suttle difference "It was only after work had finished for the day that it became apparent that Ben was missing"

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MESSAGE to NEWCOMERS

This blog believes that concerning the MADDIE McCANN case the following happened:

- Maddie McCanndied in the early evening of May 3rd, 2007, in the Apartment 5A. We believe the death to have been accidental.

- At the time of Maddie's death the Praia da Luz's Ocean Club was hosting a large swinging holiday (which we believe took place in various locations in and around Praia da Luz - from Lagos to Sagres) in which the McCanns and friends were part of among many others.

- After Maddie's death a cover-up of unseen proportions and scope took place not to hide Maddie's death but with the main purpose of hiding the presence of swinging. To achieve that, Maddie's death had to be hidden.

- We don't believe there was any sort of negligence involved in the Maddie affair. We don't believe that T9 dined at Tapas Bar from Sunday to Wednesday. We think that on those nights they left their children with professional nannies - as did other guests - to go dine downtown PdL. On Thursday night they did use Tapas but that was simply part of what was to be "negligence"that was required to allow Maddie to be "abducted."

PJ Files

Anonymity

A MAJOR MINORITY

TRUTH is Self-Sustained

Think for yourself

Luz - THE VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED

PdL - What a place. Why does anyone holiday there?It's populated by black heroin addicts, people who rob apartments, gypsies who steal scrap and wood, scruffy moustachioed lurers of children, bogus charity collectors, suspicious street musicians, men lurking near phone booths, glasses man lurking in stairwells, blond men suspiciously lurking outside apartments, soothing couples entering apartments without permission, mysterious gangs of cleaners, men taking photographs of children on beaches... And to top it all, you have to queue for a table booking.Anonymous 11Nov 2013 12:22:00

Maybe because you can always enjoy an ice-cream in the rain?And a dip in an icy pool on arrival always attracts a crowd.Textusa 11Nov 2013 12:28:00

I like the Tapas fragile chairs and tables. They wobble nicely when cutting thick grilled steaks spilling the drinks all about! It's fun for the whole family!Anonymous 11Nov 2013 13:08:00

And how about the number of men seen carrying little blond girls in the street in the middle of the night?Anonymous 11Nov 2013 14:04:00

PdL - where families take it in turn to vomit each night, dog packs pursue and bite joggers, guests fall off catamarans, damage tendons playing tennis, have shaving accidents and stagger around apartments bleeding, domestic appliances need repair, shutters jam, baby monitors won't function at restaurants, travel cots can't be assembled.. sounds like THE VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED.Anonymous 12 Nov 2013 12:37:00

Child Catcher

Algarve - THE REGION OF THE DAMNED

“Algarve – Where Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s Child Catcher found it ideal to roam the streets with his GYPSY-wagon:“There are children here somewhere. I can smell them. Come along, kiddie-winkies!”Algarve, the REGION OF THE DAMNED.”

Please Reconstruct I:

PJ's Declaration for Reopening Process:

"Madeleine McCann

As is the case with any situation in which a child goes missing, notwithstanding formal dismissal of the inquiry into her disappearance, and just as has always been publicly stated, the Polícia Judiciária never stopped paying close attention to any and all information that might possibly shed light on the whereabouts of the minor Madeleine McCann, the circumstances surrounding her disappearance and the identity of the perpetrator(s).

It was with this goal in mind that in March 2011 the National Director of the Polícia Judiciária entrusted a team of investigators from the North Directorate with the mission of reassessing, as a whole, the vast amount of information gathered during the inquiry, aimed at identifying data for which a more in-depth investigation might be useful and possible.

The reassessment which took place over the last two years and a half suggested new evidence to have surfaced, which, requiring the investigation to proceed, meets the requirements set out by section 279(1) of the Portuguese Code of Criminal Procedure for reopening of the inquiry.

Accordingly, a request for reopening was made to the Public Prosecutor for the jurisdiction of Portimao, and approval granted by the latter. "

The Anne Guedes Transcriptions

Permanent Suggested Reading

Quote

“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” Mark Twain

Revelations

"For the righteous, a revelation is a joyous event, the realization of a divine truth but for the wicked, revelations can be far more terrifying, when dark secrets are exposed and sinners are punished for their trespasses." Quote from the TV Series "Revenge" (T2 - Ep9)

Truth

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.Arthur Schopenhauer

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.Winston Churchill

The Revolution

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.George Orwell

The Revolution Goes Viral

"Once information networks become social, the implications are massive: truth can now travel faster than lies, and all propaganda becomes instantly flammable. Sure, you can try to insert spin, but the instantly networked consciousness of millions of people will set it right: they act like white blood cells against infection so that ultimately the truth, or something close to it, persists much longer than disinformation"The Guardian (04Jan12)

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts Winston Churchill

PRECIOUS, SO TRUE, WORDS

“One coincidence, two coincidences – maybe they’re still coincidences. Any more than that and it stops being coincidence.”

Kate McCann

(in MADELEINE, by Kate McCann, published in 2011 by Bantam Press, pg. 328)

Imagine...

"This says it all, Ms Loach hit the nail on the head!

"Ms Loach replied: “Imagine the public believing that you covered up your child’s death and then sought to make money out of it. They feel shame, humiliation and anguish."

Yes, that's exactly what we, the public, believe, because that's exactly what they did! And, their "shame, humiliation and anguish" are because they know we know!"

Comment posted by Anonymous to Textusa at Sep 16, 2013, 8:36:00 AM on "McCann vs Amaral Libel Trial" post referring to Mockumentary maker Emma Loach's testimony on the 1st day of said trial as one of McCann's defense witness.

Legal Disclaimer

This blog expresses exclusively the exchange of ideas and of opinions, between WHITE HATS, so is not responsible for the use, misuse or any form of interpretation (mainly misinterpretation) of its content, as although it uses a public medium, as is the internet, it's of PRIVATE nature, very much like any other conversation that takes place in a restaurant, pub or any other public location, where FREEDOM OF SPEECH is exercised.

Sound Explanation for Viciousness

Compliments from the Maggots' Lair:

- “…all the others pale into insignificance when compared to textusa.”

- “I think she should be on the streets and off the internet"

Chinagirl):

- “Disgusting piece of slime.”

(Raptor):

- “Yikes ! That's disgusting.”

(preciousramotswe):

- “You are right. It's a shambolic mess of vitriol and obtuseness. But then they always are. The one that some claimed finally 'proved' who was carrying who during the Smith sighting is a masterpiece of deliberately confused arguments in which labrynthine plots are used to cover how empty the central thesis is”

Out of the Blue (or... Black?)

Hey textusa How are you? well I hope,just thought I would tell you that there are videos about you on youtube, claiming you are an internet predator who stole her daughters identity and prowls the forums for young boys, they say you are welsh!! I think its a case of mistaken identity because are you not portuguese and male? Anyway great blog. keep it up.(Anon., Nov 13th, 05:43)

Conversation from the "Lightless Zone"

sabot:

“Wot Round Table?”

bonnybraes1:

“He/she/it invented a barking mad 'theory' about no-one actually having eaten in the Tapas, because he/she/it couldn't grasp the table arrangements.”

So, because textusa doesn't understand stuff like that, all the Tapas group, the staff, everyone, were lying.

OMG - you don't suppose textusa is actually Gonc, do you?”

sansouci:“Could be Bonny.

The 'theories' about the table and the watersports are really so far beyond bizarre, that I get the feeling that 'textusa' could actually be 'pisstaka'.”

BLACK BUT TRUE WORDS

“Because no-one is more vicious in their search for payback that those who realise they have allowed themselves to be taken for a fool” (A "boomerang" comment left by an Anonymous (Insane?) at Sep 22, 2012 2:06:00 PM)

Insane's IMPORTANT Comments

“…How would any of you idiots like it if your name came into the public domain because you were witness to a crime, and some mad bitch set up a site in which she called you a liar, and claimed you were actually involved in the crime you witnessed? Just ponder on that for a moment”

Aug 28, 2011 9:27:00 AM

“…Where is your sense of shame or decency in accusing innocent witnesses of being involved in covering up the death of a child?

I see no shame or decency on here - just an utter indifference to the rights or feelings of others.

I notice no-one had the balls to answer my question about how you would feel if this was done to you - if you were a witness to a crime and some deranged cow on the internet accused you of being involved. You are all a complete disgrace.”

Aug 28, 2011 1:09:00 PM

FOOT IN THE MOUTH DISEASE

Insane (Nov 14, 2012 11:37:00 PM):

Oh look here - amazing what one can find out by means of a couple of emails to Mark Warner.

You are toast, lady. Finished.

I am going to enjoy this more than is actually decent.

Textusa (Nov 15, 2012 8:50:00 AM):

Well it seems that you're quite privy with the Ocean Club aren't you?

Them giving YOU the information about their own mails?

And you threatening us based on information that YOU apparently got from the Ocean Club.

That's really interesting, isn't it?

Insane (Nov 15, 2012 10:47:00 PM):

One thing I really like about Mark Warner is how helpful their staff are. Really go the extra mile for someone needing information. IYKWIM

:)

Textusa (Nov 16, 2012 11:17:00 AM):

Thank you for confirming that Mark Warner Staff are supplying YOU with information pertaining the Maddie Affair.

Insane's Moment of Rare Beauty

“It would be more suspicious if every account tallied. Police expect to find contradictions, don't tell me you did not know this?” (Nov 22, 2012 3:38:00 PM), when providing an opinion on contradictions from various statements in the PJ Files.

“I don't give a rat's arse about the statements which tally too closely - of course some of them tally too closely, there is an in depth analysis of them on my blog, the one you are not invited to.” (Nov 22, 2012 4:08:00 PM), when, exactly 30 minutes later, provides an opposite opinion, in this case about the fact that some of Tapas' Staff's statements tally too closely.

Insane the Entrepeneur?

"I'd love to stay, but I have a report to write, and it won't do itself, will it?" (Nov 29, 2012 8:14:00 PM)Insane the Disruptor, a new profession shown inNew Career Opportunities

Insane's Proposal for a New Legal Disclaimer

Textusa's new disclaimer. Please ignore all previous versions

''This blog expresses exclusively the exchange of ideas and opinions between people who have sniffed WAY too many solvents, and the imaginary people who live at the bottom of their garden, and so is not responsible for the enormous fines, possible imprisonment, or lifelong incarceration in a mental hospital which may result from it's content, as although it is on the interclickyweb, it is of a private nature, accompanied only by the voices in their heads, very much like any other conversation which takes place in a psychiatric ward between people rocking backwards and forwards in their seat and eating the wallcoverings, where FREEDOM OF SPEECH is exercised in the half hour per day of free association which the inmates are allowed.''Comment NOT published but submitted on Aug 22, 2011 10:17:00 PM

Kate's Round Table

INSANE'S BLOG

We waited so long for the link...

A possible explanation for the wait: "As I have made perfectly clear, you and your sort will never have access to my blog. We are particular about who we invite, and would not include screaming harpies and riff-faff like yourself."unpublished comment from Insane at Nov 23, 2012 10:55:00 AM

Then, a glimmer of hope?“Publishing elsewhere the posts Textusa refuses to publish is also appropriate - and also gives you fools a chance to read what she withholds from you, knowing that you would desert her if you were aware of how much trouble she leads you into.” (Nov 29, 2012 12:40:00 PM)

No, it wasn’t to be so… :“For the last time, you will never be provided with a link for my blog - you are not welcome there and will never be given access”(Nov 29, 2012 1:38:00 PM)